Laundry apparatus



Nov. 4, 1930.

A. D. STALEY 1,780,210

3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 16, 1924 A. D. STALEY Nov. 4, 1930.

LAUNDRY APPARATUS Filed Feb.

16 1924 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 II I r/l W 1mm.

- A TTORNE Y8 Patented Nov. 4, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ALONZOD. STALI'IY, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE AMERICAN LAUNDRYMACHINERY COMPANY, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO LAUNDRYAPPARATUS Application filed February 16, 1924. Serial No. 693,271.

This invention relates to laundry apparatus, and particularly toapparatus for performing the usual washing,extracting and dryingoperations upon wearing apparel or other materials.

In commercial laundries a considerable portion of the cost of laundrywork is due to the labor charge for marking or otherwise maintaining theproper identification between the articles sent to the laundry bydifferent customers to avoid confusion or loss, as well as to the laborcharge for systematically handling the work and conveying it with aproper marking or identifying system from machine to machine. A largepart of this expense may be eliminated by handling the work in groupsand particularly where the apparatus for performing the difierentlaundry operations is so designed as to enable a group to be submittedintact or without change to several different treatments, therebyavoiding any necessity for individual marking of the articles or forcompartment trucks or other devices in which to classify the groupsorarticles or while being carried from one part of the laundry toanother.

The present invention therefore has for its obj ect to provide suitableapparatus for per forming a plurality of laundry operations upon thework without liability of mlxi'ng or confusing the articles of one groupw1thanother. More particularly the invention 0011- templates the use ofcontainers forthe articles which containers are capable of beingintroduced successively into a plurality of machines for performingdifferent laundry treatments without removal of the "articles from suchcontainers so that the containers ma serve as identifying means, ifdesired, and can be readily and expeditiously conveyed from one machineto another in the travel of the work through the laundry.

A further object of the invention 1s to. provide a plurality of laundrymachines for performing different laundry treatments upon the work, saidmaclnnes being of ord nary form and capable of perfornnng their usuallaundry operations in the ordmary manner, but which machines are eachequ1pped to receive interchangeably any one of a series of likecontainer units, which containers may be of cylindrical or partlycylindrical form, as will more fully appear hereinafter.

tudinal sectional elevation of a part of the washing machine shown inFig. 1; Fig. 4 is a detail sectionalview on the line H, Fig. 1, of oneof the work receiving containers; Fig. 5 is a detail plan View, partlybroken out and in section, of a pair of containers locked in place inthe rotating member of the washing machine shown in Fig. 3; Fig. 6 is aside elevation, partly in section on the line 6-6, Fig. 7, of anextractor adapted for use of the invention; and Fig. 7 is a plan viewthereof partly broken out and in section.

In acommercial laundry the work operated'upon is usually subjected to anumber of distinct operations, among which the most common are washing,extracting and drying operations, although other operations may be andare performed upon certain classes of work. The washing operation isusually performed in a washing machine including a rotary drum forturning over the work in a detergent bath Within a tub. The extractorincludes a foraminous basket rotatable on a vertical axis to removesurplus liquid, such as the rinse water, by a centrifugal extractingoperation. The drying operation, after extraction ofsurplus liquid, isfrequently performed in what is called a drying tum bler including aforaminous drum rotated on an axis in a current of heated air to eithercompletely dry the. work or at least remove so much moisture that it canbe practically immediately subjected to an ironing operation. All ofthese .three machines include therefore a rotary member for containingthe work, and according to my invention these machines and any othersinvolving .a rotatable work containing member for a laundry operationmay be adapted for this shown more or less conventionally in Figs. 1

and 3, said machine comprisesa suitable frame 1 carrying a hollow tub orcasing 2 for the washing liquid, said casing being provided with theusual door or doors 3. In said casing is a rotatable shaft ldriven bysuitable mechanism (not shown) usually mounted on the outside of thecasing,'and

. which shaft normally serves to support the foraminous drum orcontainer for the work. According to the present invention, said shaftis provided with means for supporting the duplicate work carrying units,only one of which will therefore be described. For convenience inmanipulation and to enable a number of lots or groups of articles to besimultaneously subjected to the laundry operations the units arepreferably made partly cylindrical, or in other words a plu-- rality ofsaid units assembled together form a cylinder. In the present instance,each container is of wedge or segmental shape, four of them whenassembled completing a cylinder and each container therefore has 90 ofcylindrical surface, two radially extending surfaces at right angles toeach. other, and two end surfaces. The containers are foraminous topermit the flow of washing liquids or air 'therethrough and may be ofany suitable form. In the present embodiment they comprise a suitablestrong stifi frame 5 made of an le irons or other structural sheetswelde together and carrying the forami nous, cylindrical wall 6, radialwalls 7 and two opposed end walls. One of said end walls, for examplethe wall 8 at the left of Fig. 3, is rigid or immovable with the othercontainer walls, while the opposite end wall is in the form of a door,having a sectorshaped frame 8 carrying the foraminous screen 9. Saiddoor is hinged at 10 to the frame 5, the axis of the hinge beinginwardly from the end of the container, while the opposite edge of thedoor has the frame pro vided with a recess or opening 11 through whichextends a latch 12 when the door is closed. There are two such latchesfor each container, one at each end thereof. Said latches may be ofanysuitable form, but as shown, are small, spring pressed bolts withtheir ends beveled as at 13, urged outwardly to locking position bysprings 14 and capable ofretraction by the provision of a finger hole 15in each bolt. Because the hinge axis 10 is back of the end of thecontainer the door can be moved to closed position without firstretracting the door latch and when the tiplepf four by the provision ofthe necessary nuinber of spiders. Each spider has a circumferentiallyextending rim 17, of substantially T-form, beneath the flange of whichthe-lock bolts 12 may be extended, as

shown in Fig. 3, to remova'bly lock the container in place. The spidersalso are provided with four radially extending flanges 18 and innerabutme nts or supports 19, which separate the several containers andform efficient supports therefor as shown in Fig. 3.

The extractor may be of any suitable form, either overdriven orunderdriven, and, as shown in Figs. 6 and 7, is an underdriven extractorincluding a frame 20 carrying an electric motor 21 operating a pulley 22from which a belt 23 extends to a pulley (not shown) on or connected tothe vertical spindle 24. Said spindle carries a cage or support for thework containers, including the bottom or floor 25 and a li ht butnecessary strong frame including vertically extending ribs 26,circumferential bands 27 and a series, four being shown, of radialforaminous partitions 28 which may be connected at their outer edges tothe vertical ribs and at their inner edges to a sleeve 29 upon thespindle 24.

The drying tumbler may also be of any suitable or desirable form andpurely for the purpose of illustration is shown in Fig. 2 as comprisinga suitable casing 30 in which is a heating chamber 31 provided with theheating coils 32 and a passage 33 leading through an opening 34. intothe drying chamber 35. In said chamber is located a rotatable shaft 36provided with spiders or frame members of thesazme construction as thoseshown for the washing machine in Fig. 3, for supporting four oranymultiple of four duplicate work receiving containers. The. dryingchamber communicates with a passage 37 from which .the moisture ladenedair passes through a lint collecting screen 38 to a chamber 39 opentothe suction side of a fanor blower 40, the outlet of whichcommunicates by a passage 41 with the bottom of the heating chamber andby a passage 42 with an outlet 43 to the atmosphere. 44 indicates ascreened inlet to the fan chamber 39.

In use of this'apparatus, the work to be laundered is divided intogroups or lots of a size to be properly received by one of thecontainers. vA givgn laundry, for example may use a pluralitybfwashers,extractors and dry ing tumblers of the kind described, and fifty, onehundred or even more duplicate containers, each of the severalcontainers being individually marked and identified or distinguishedfrom all others by a serial number or legend stamped or impressed in themetal or applied to a tag or other device secured thereto. The severalgroups of work are each placed in one of the containers and a record ofthe number of the container thereforesuffices to identify the work untilall laundering operations thereon are completed. A series of suchcontainers are now inserted into the washing machine by merely openingthe door or doors 3 thereof, turning the shaft 4 by intervals of 90 anddropping or pushing each of the containers home to seating position onflanges 18 and supports 19 whereupon the latch bolts 12 snap out intoposition beneath the flanges of spider rims 17 and firmly but detachablysecure the containers in place. The washin machine is thenoperated forany or all of t e usual operations of soaking, washing, rinsing, bluingand the like, and after all such operations are completed and the lastwashing liquid is drained from the tub the door 3 is opened and'thecontainers are removed one by one and carried or conveyed by suitableconveyors to the extracting machine. Here four of the containers aredropped into the rotatable frame in vertical 'position,-there being nonecessity for locking the containers in place because centrifugal forceis suflicient to hold them. The extractor is then operated and thesurplus water removed. The containers are next removed from theextractor and placed in position in the drying tumbler in the samemanner as in r the washer by opening the door 45 and pushing thecontainers home to locked position in the rotatable spider frame. Fan 40is put in operation and while the containers are rotating in the dryingtumbler a current of heated air is passed therethrough to dry the work,after which the containers are removed; It will be observed that up tothis point no necessity exists for any attention by the operators of anyof the machines as to the question of identification of goods, which ismaintained entirely by the numbered containers and the fact that thearticles are not removed from the containers until all laundering operations are performed. When the containers are taken out of the dryingtumbler they are opened and the groups taken out and either wrapped fordelivery or subjected to other operations as may be necessary.

Other advantages of the'invention will be clearly apparent to thoseskilled in the art.

What I claim is: In a machine of the character described, a rotatableshaft, frame means rotatable with said shaft, a work receiving containerprovid- I tion and for latching said container to said signature.

ALONZO D. STALEY.

